Klaus Weinhauer

Controlling Control Institutions: Policing of Collective Protests in 1960s West Germany

While in some 1960s West German police forces, the transition from the traditions of paramilitary policing was well under way in day-to-day police work and in policing youth riots, the policing of political protests still had its problems. First, during these police interventions an escalation of physical violence occurred especially among policemen aged over 30. Their actions were guided by an organizational culture, which rested upon notions of aggressive masculinity, on a highly coherent group culture and on a professional ethos which had its roots in the (Prussian) police forces of the Weimar Republic and which understood policing as protecting the existence of the state against communist upheaval. Second, the violent actions policemen took during riot policing were also influenced by their experiences during day-to-day policing and also during their training phase in the police barracks. Third, reform efforts were initiated by politicians who had not been socialized inside the police. Fourth, in order to realize their aims they established formal institutions for improved communication among policemen, politicians, and agents of civil society. Until the late 1970s, however, the organizational culture of the police proved itself partially immune to many changes.

Terrorism between Social Movements, the State and Media Societies

Research on terrorism and on social movements both mainly originate in the turbulent 1960s, when social movements, student protests, urban riots and acts of political violence gained massive public attention. Political violence labelled as terrorism is a phenomenon which is inseparable from a complex process of communication between the terrorist militants, state institutions and media (societies). The following overview focuses on five overlapping historical phases of sub-state terrorism and its repertoires of violent action since the late nineteenth century, and discusses the relation of terrorism to social movements, to the state and to media-based communication. Moreover, it will be enquired how (urban) militants labeled as ‘terrorists’ communicated with supportive social milieu, how these militant activists became radicalized and how terrorism could be pacified. Terrorist violence is rarely the tool of fully-developed social movements but something which emerges at a time when the strategies and aims of these movements remain vague or when these movements are on the demise. The geographical focus of this article will mainly be on Europe, Africa, Latin America and the USA.

Staatsgewalt, Massen, Männlichkeit: Polizeieinsätze gegen Jugend- und Studentenproteste in der Bundesrepublik der 1960er Jahre

Gewaltforschung befi ndet sich momentan im Aufwind. Dies gilt sowohl fur sozial- als auch fur geschichtswissenschaftliche Untersuchungen. Stand noch in den 1980er Jahren die Analyse struktureller Gewalt hoch im Kurs, so haben inzwischen Mikroperspektiven grosere Aufmerksamkeit gefunden, speziell die korperlichen Aspekte. Viele dieser Studien widmen sich Kriegen, Burgerkriegen oder deren Nachwirkungen und sind somit auch auf die Probleme von Staatlichkeit bezogen. Jedoch bleibt die staatliche Gewaltpraxis in wie auch immer defi nierten „normalen“ Zeiten stark unterbelichtet; dies gilt besonders fur die zweite Halfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. So bildet auch die bundesdeutsche Geschichte fur die neue Gewaltforschung nahezu eine terra incognita. Dies gilt umso mehr fur die sozial- und kulturgeschichtliche Analyse staatlicher, genauer: polizeilicher Gewalt(praxis).

Vorwort der Gastherausgeber

Sozialer und physischer Raum und deren Bezug auf menschliches Verhalten sind traditionelle Forschungskonzepte der Kulturwissenschaften. Allerdings wurden diese Kategorien von der deutschen Geschichtswissenschaft bis in die jungste Vergangenheit kaum beachtet. Mit seinem Schwerpunkt „Raum und Kommunikation“ versuchte der Deutsche Historikertag (Kiel 2004) daher raumliche Studien in der deutschen Geschichte wieder anzustosen. Die folgenden Aufsatze geben die Vortrage einer Sektion des Historikertages wieder. In der Befassung mit Jugendkulturen, Delinquenz und Raum versuchen sie Raum als Konzept historischen Erklarens wieder in Wert zu stellen.